Reproductive Rights Myths vs Facts: What the Evidence Shows

Abortions after 21 weeks of pregnancy represent approximately 1% of all abortions performed in the United States. Abortions after 24 weeks — the category most people think of as 'late-term' — represent less than 0.5%. The overwhelming majority of abortions (93%) occur during the first trimester, and most of the remainder occur between 13 and 20 weeks. The political debate around late-term abortion is wildly disproportionate to its actual occurrence.

Later abortions almost always involve deeply wanted pregnancies that have gone wrong — severe fetal anomalies incompatible with life (anencephaly, severe organ malformations), or serious threats to the pregnant person's health. Many fetal anomalies cannot be detected until the 20-week anatomy scan. Families receiving devastating diagnoses at 20+ weeks are already in crisis; they are not casually deciding to terminate healthy pregnancies. The framing of later abortions as elective choices is medically inaccurate and profoundly cruel to the families involved.

Only a handful of providers in the entire country perform abortions after 24 weeks, and only under extreme medical circumstances. The idea that healthy pregnancies are being terminated at 8 or 9 months — a claim made repeatedly in political rhetoric — has no basis in medical reality. No provider performs abortions at that stage without severe medical justification. The claim is designed to generate outrage, not to describe what actually happens.

The most comprehensive global study on this question — published in The Lancet by researchers at the Guttmacher Institute and the World Health Organization — found that abortion rates are roughly the same in countries where abortion is legal and countries where it is banned. The global abortion rate in countries with legal access is 40 per 1,000 women of reproductive age; in countries with bans, it is 37 per 1,000. Bans do not prevent abortions — they make them more dangerous.

What actually reduces abortion rates is access to contraception and comprehensive sex education. Countries with the lowest abortion rates in the world — the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium — have both legal abortion and universal access to contraception and sex education. The US states with the most restrictive abortion laws tend to also have higher rates of teen pregnancy and unintended pregnancy because they also restrict access to contraception and sex education.

Since the Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, states with bans have seen patients travel to other states, order medication abortion through telemedicine and mail, and in some cases obtain abortions outside the legal system. Bans have also led to documented cases of patients being denied care for miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies, and other pregnancy complications because providers feared prosecution. The bans have not eliminated abortion — they have made reproductive healthcare more dangerous and less accessible, particularly for low-income women who cannot afford to travel.

Polling consistently shows that large majorities of Americans oppose total or near-total abortion bans. A Gallup poll in 2023 found that 69% of Americans believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases during the first trimester. Pew Research found that 62% of Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Even among Republicans, a majority oppose total bans — 55% say abortion should be legal in at least some circumstances.

Since the Dobbs decision, voters have directly weighed in on abortion in seven state ballot measures — Kansas, Kentucky, Montana, Ohio, California, Michigan, and Vermont — and abortion rights have won every single time, including in deep-red states like Kansas and Kentucky. These are not close results. Kansas voted 59-41 to protect abortion rights. Ohio voted 57-43. When voters — as opposed to legislatures — decide the issue directly, abortion rights consistently prevail by wide margins.

The mismatch between restrictive state laws and public opinion exists because of gerrymandering, low-turnout elections, and single-issue anti-abortion voters who have outsized influence in Republican primaries. State legislatures in Texas, Florida, Georgia, and other states have passed bans that are far more restrictive than what their own residents support. The anti-abortion movement's legislative success reflects political strategy, not majority opinion.